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Wow!! Maskarade has given us a themed puzzle for the Easter holiday and it is a monster!

It took we a while to figure out what was going on and I had to read and re-read the preamble a few times before it finally clicked.

Actually, once you know what 3 possible words the preamble is referring to, they can be a help in solving rather than a hinderance.

FOI was 58a followed by 37d but my first themed answer was 56a.

In terms of difficulty I'd say it is difficult, but a lot depends on how quickly you identify the three possible themed words.

If you do get stuck there are two long anagrams and a hidden, all in the downs.

There are still three I can't fully parse, namely 45a, 54a and 48a but I'll think on them a while longer and hope for a PDM.

COD - A few contenders this week with the humorous 40d and 41a but I've gone for 38a - Precipitation from a Jersey sewer (4,4)

As always, please feel free to ask for a hint if you get stuck and let us know what you thought of this week's holiday puzzle.

Thanks to Maskarade for giving us an excellent start to the Easter weekend.

Stay safe:-)

Actually, I've just realised I still haven't parsed 43d, 35a, 17a and 5d

Just seen the definition of 5d in Chambers - had no idea it meant this!

... and just figured out the wordplay to 17a and 35a - that just leaves 43d which doesn't seem to be in any wordsearch engine?

Gosh thanks so much Brendan for mentioning that there is a preamble which is not apparent in the app. No wonder I was finding it indecipherable.

Also I thought there were an awful lot of very long words but looking at the pdf version it turns out that many are made up of shorter words! Again, information that is missing on the app. No wonder I was so confused and getting rather cross at this crossword!!

Hi FemmeNoire,

I know how you feel - I'm going round in circles trying to figure out 43d.

43d - No wonder I couldn't find it in a dictionary!!

Thanks to Maskarade. I loved the old Araucaria jigsaws, have not yet warmed to M and rarely try his (her?) puzzles. But Julius's alphabetical jigsaw in the FT was a bit too easy, so I tried this and have been enjoying it!
Got close to half the grid before figuring out the theme, now am close to three-quarters finished. Doubt that I'll be able to complete the puzzle, as some of the answers so far have been highly obscure (IMO) words. But it'll be a reasonable project over the holiday weekend. Taking a break for now, wishing good solving to the other posters.

Hi Geeker,

I agree it is very difficult, especially for overseas solvers, being that there are at least three UK centric names, but, if you stick with it, I'm sure you'll finish it:-)

Morning /evening all
Managed this one fairly quickly, but enjoyed it.
FOI 7ac
LOI 5d
COD (imho) 12ac
Happy Easter